The Girl and Her Fortune

Two orphaned sisters leave an expensive finishing school and return to a sheltered household where their finances and prospects are managed by a family lawyer. The younger sister is conventionally pretty and socially admired, while the elder is intellectually curious and less striking; both regard themselves as newly grown women facing arranged futures. Their hostess functions as a practical, self-interested chaperone, and attention is paid to domestic detail, seasonal setting, and the sisters’ differing temperaments. The opening scenes sketch their arrival at a country home and set up tensions between appearance, personal inclination, and dependence on guardianship.